Lankan refugees arrested for illegally entering India

Reuters:  Four Sri Lankan refugees, including a five-year-old girl and a pregnant woman, were arrested in the southern coastal town of Rameswaram yesterday for illegally entering India.

The Sri Lankan Tamil refugees arrived in India by an illegal ferry service by paying Rs. 30,000 ($ 472.5). Arrested under the India Passport Act, 1920, the refugees are being interrogated by local police.

One of the arrested refugees, B. Nirosan, said he had come for the second delivery of his wife. The couple’s first child was also born at a Tamil Nadu hospital.

The arrests come days after a boat was found abandoned off Dhanushkodi coast by police.